


The Taste of Fraternity

by Anonymous



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Alternate Universe - Trans, Blood Magic, Blood Predjudice, Dark Magic, Gen, M/M, Politics, Trans Harry, Trans Harry Potter, Transphobia, trans boy harry potter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-19
Updated: 2017-08-19
Packaged: 2018-12-17 11:09:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11850354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Harry needs someone to give him some blood so he can have a potion to transition. He's surprised by who accepts the offer.





	The Taste of Fraternity

**Author's Note:**

> Small amounts of transphobia implied.

            The boy who everyone likes to call the Girl Who Lives climbs the stairs up to the Gryffindor boy’s dorm room, ready for the most awkward request he’s ever made of anyone.

            Because, well… he needs blood, for the potion Madame Pomfrey’s going to make now that he finally has a godfather who approves of his desire to transition. He needs blood from someone who was born a boy, that’s going to go into a potion he has to _drink._ He knows the boys in Gryffindor okay, although his best friend is Hermione, but he doesn’t know if they’ll approve of that kind of magic.

            “Hey, Harry,” Neville Longbottom says with a smile when he sees Harry. “What’s up?”

            Harry smiles back at Neville, who was the first boy at Hogwarts to get the “Girl Who Lived”’s new name and pronouns straight without wringing his hands about how hard it was since he’d thought of Harry as a girl all his life. “I actually came here to ask a favor, probably of you or Ron but maybe of Dean or Seamus if you guys don’t want to.”

            “Sure, what is it?” Neville scoots up on his bed, making room for Harry, who sits down.

            “So you guys know how I’m gonna move into the boy’s dorm soon and all because I’m going to be taking the potions, yeah?” Harry opens with something that’s pretty neutral. Seamus was a little weird about it at first, but Harry’s sheer influence within Gryffindor House and Hogwarts made him shut up about it.

            “Yeah,” Neville catches the attention of Ron and the other boys, and soon they’re all looking at Harry. Harry feels small and gangly in front of the boys, who he tries not to admit feel like they belong so much more in this dorm than he does.

            “So guys… I need some blood. Not a lot. But it’s an ingredient of the potion, because that’s how it speeds up the process of the transition. Is uh, anyone willing to be the donor?” Harry stutters a bit, worrying that it’s a ridiculous request.

            Neville’s the first to answer — or more accurately, he’s the first to react, casting his eyes down and away from Harry. “’M sorry, Harry, I just don’t feel comfortable doing that. Blood magic is really dark.”

            Harry blinks in confusion. He knows not to pressure somebody, but he doesn’t understand why Neville is reacting that way. It’s magic to make the _Boy Who Lived_ feel more comfortable in society. How is that dark?

            “What about you, Ron? Will you?” Harry turns next to his and Hermione’s closest friend in the dorm, Ron Weasley.

            Ron looks surprised at being asked the question, which he really shouldn’t be. He knew this was coming and that Harry would be needing the blood of _someone_ reaching puberty.

            “… Needles?” he chokes out. “I really don’t like needles. Also, like Nev said, it’s dark!”

            Seamus and Dean react in similar ways, although Seamus’s reaction is tinged with a bit of disgust at the actual act of making the potion, in a way that Harry can’t call out without seeming too sensitive. Harry nods, accepting people’s responses, although he really wishes he could yell. Why can’t he just _demand_ that somebody give him blood, if people aren’t willingly offering it up?

***

            That afternoon, Harry and Hermione are in the library, and Hermione has gone off to look for some obscure book in the stacks. Harry is stuck on his essay for Potions, and has his — in his estimation overly baby-faced — face in his hands as he attempts to focus on the Antidote to Uncommon Potions and fails.

            There’s a slapping of a book down next to him, and Harry jumps slightly.

            “Jumpy, aren’t you, Potter? It’s just me,” Indeed it is “just” Draco Malfoy, the boy who has always vaguely interested Harry but who he’s never actually tried to talk to because of the whole Pureblood Slytherin thing.

            “What do you want, Malfoy?” Harry asks, more grumpily than he intended to.

            “I’m reading. It’s a common thing one does when one’s trying to do schoolwork. What happened, did a Niffler steal everything in your Gringotts vault or something?” Malfoy jokes.

            It’s that kind of attitude that’s always put Harry off of him, like he thinks money, status and power are the most important things in the world — more important than people who actually like you. “Nothing to do with money. Has to do with blood, actually.” What the hell, it’s not like Malfoy is going to be the one to give him the blood, but he has no reason to hide it.

            “Go on,” Malfoy says, abandoning his book.

            “I need it for the transition potion Madame Pomfrey is making for me. Blood from a _real boy._ ” Harry says in a fed up voice, because no matter how much Sirius says it isn’t true, Harry thinks he’s not really a real boy anymore.

            “You could’ve just asked, Potter,” Malfoy says, leaning back in his chair.

            Harry blinks in confusion. “Could’ve… just… asked? But it’s dark magic!”

            “Yeah, and I’m a Malfoy and a Black. Did you really think that would be a problem? You need it, I’ve got plenty to spare. Just don’t take it all at once, I hear that’s a really painful way for someone to die,” Malfoy laughs, and Harry finds himself laughing along with the boy despite his better judgement.

            “So you mean it? You’ll give me some blood for the potions?” Harry asks to check that this isn’t some Slytherin trick of Malfoy making Harry feel like he’s pathetic for having to get it. “None of the Gryffindor boys in my year said they would.”

            “Not surprised, they’re blood traitors. You did good to come ask me first thing,” Malfoy smiles.

            “But I didn’t ask you first thing. I asked four other people first.” Harry figures he’ll address that instead of Malfoy’s use of the word “blood traitor”.

            “Yeah, but that’s what my father will end up thinking,” Malfoy says with a smug expression.

***

            A week later, a slightly tired Draco (who’s decided to give the blood for all the potions and have Madame Pomfrey store it) and a nervous but excited Harry sit in the Hospital Wing, with Madame Pomfrey putting the final touches on Harry’s first Transition Potion.

            “Are you ready, Potter?” she asks, presenting Harry with the clear potion. Harry gulps, knowing that just like with the Wolfsbane Potion, sugar will make the this potion less effective.

            “I convinced my father to let me give a Gryffindor my blood, and Harry’s moved into the boy’s dormitory. I’m pretty sure he’s ready,” Draco says in a surprisingly dry voice.

            Harry smirks as he lifts the potion to his lips, and somehow manages to drink it all without throwing up. He’s been through worse.

            “It tasted _disgusting,”_ he says to Draco when he’s finished it all, resisting the urge to spit at Madame Pomfrey.

            “It was the taste of fraternity,” a slightly loopy Draco replies, smiling, and Harry’s heart warms as the potion spreads through his body.


End file.
